The term solderless breadboard describes the base board of a system for building electronic circuits. In this system, the breadboard comprises an electrically non-conductive board having a regular array of plug positions comprising holes for insertion of wires or electrical component leads. From this arises the term plugboard which is also used for this type of board. Plug positions are electrically conductive and each joins to at least one other plug position by an electrically conductive link. This may be a conductive strip on the underside of the board, for example a copper strip. An engineer may construct a circuit by plugging and unplugging leads of a number of electrical components using the plug positions. The reusable construction of the breadboard allows an engineer to build a circuit, test it and change its design until a final working design is achieved. At this point the design may be constructed in a production environment, for example on a printed circuit board.
FIG. 1 depicts a plan view of the upper surface of part of a known solderless breadboard 100 including an example circuit portion. Electrically conductive strips or lines 110 are arranged in rows. Typically, at the mid-point of the breadboard electrically conductive rows 110 comprise a gap 105 providing a position for mounting integrated circuit components such as component 120. Components such as component 130 may be plugged in, connecting adjacent rows. Rows and separated portions of rows 110 may be connected by plugging in electrically conductive wire connections 115, 115a. In FIG. 1, the rightmost pins of integrated circuit 120 are connected by using the three conductive wire connections labelled 115a. 
Stripboard is another form of prototyping board, but of a more permanent form using soldered components. A particular example is Veroboard®. A stripboard comprises a regular array of holes for receiving electrical component leads. Rows of holes in the board are joined by electrically conductive strip on one side of the board, for example copper strip on the lower surface. Connections between adjacent holes on the same row may be broken by cutting away the joining part of the electrically conductive strip.
FIG. 2 depicts a plan view of the upper surface of part of a known stripboard 200 incorporating a circuit portion having the same functionality as that of FIG. 1. Components and connections such as connection 125 are inserted and soldered to stripboard 200. In this case, the rightmost pins of integrated circuit 120 are connected by leaving electrically conductive strip 135 of the stripboard (shown by a dashed line) in place. The electrically conductive strips between the remaining pins are scraped away to break the connections.
In an example, when prototyping electronic circuits, an engineer uses a solderless breadboard until the circuit is working correctly. The engineer then transfers the design to stripboard to construct a more permanent soldered prototype. A production facility may then produce a production version using printed circuit technology if required.
It would be advantageous to provide a prototyping board construction allowing greater flexibility in construction and operation.